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Noteworthy pokémon.


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#1 Vortigern

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Posted 27 August 2011 - 06:01 PM

Onix.
Onixes are native to the Mountains of the Moon, between Pewter and Cerulean. The network of tunnels largely used to traverse the path between the cities was carved out by onixes for the most part, with just a few holes knocked through by men later on. Onixes are rock-type pokémon, though that is something of a misnomer: they are regular reptilian creatures underneath their calciferous exoskeleton, which grows thicker and tougher throughout the course of their lives, to the extent that some of the older onixes are considered to be more or less invincible. They are thought to be able to live for over a thousand years, but obviously this is nothing more than conjecture based on observable growth rates and estimated measurements of sightings. Onixes are solitary creatures for the most part, but for their biannual migration, when they head north for the summer to avoid the heat. During their migration, which takes place over the course of approximately three days, onixes travel both en masse and above ground, neither of which they do at any other time. The sight of several hundred onixes between ten and two hundred feet long is quite something, and people come from all across Kanto to witness it.

Bulbasaur and bellsprout.
These two pokémon share a deeply unusual form of symbiosis in which the bellsprouts use the bulbasaurs as a carrier to spread their seed and expand their population. The plant growing on a bulbasaur's back, which provides photosynthetic nutrition and many of the bulbasaur's combative abilities, contains the seeds of bellsprouts, which are intelligent and mobile plants. This is the only known manner of genesis for bellsprouts. They later grow into the forms known as weepinbell and victreebel, but when a victreebel lays down its seeds and allows them to devour it from the inside out, it is weepinbells that emerge. Bellsprouts are thus widely considered to be an evolutionary dead end that clings on mainly because of the benefits it conveys upon bulbasaurs, even though their plant will ultimately cost the later form, called venusaur, its life. When the bellsprout plant begins to outgrow the venusaur, reckoned to be after around one hundred to one hundred and twenty years, the venusaur will remove itself to the forest of its birth where it will lay itself down to die. When it does this the bellsprout plant will take root in the soil and eventually grow into a bellsprout tree capable of flowering and deploying its seedlings to the backs of new-born bulbasaurs, which are always conceived and left to hatch under one of these trees.

Magikarp and gyarados.
Magikarp are unique among pokémon in that only the tiny minority ever grow into their adult shape, most simply remaining in the magikarp form until they are caught or die of old age, which some scientists think can take well over a hundred years. All through this life as magikarp, they will be almost entirely useless as combat pokémon, but a vital form of sustenance for fishing communities all across the world. Gyarados, on the other hand, are some of the most dangerous and unknown pokémon on the planet, as they are nearly impossible to capture alive. They live in herds in the middle of the ocean and are in constant migratory motion, eternally circling beneath the planet's storm belt, which as legend has it is caused by the presence of the legendary bird pokémon Zapdos. Every year, when the path of the gyarados brings them closest to land, brave or foolhardy sailors, colloquially known as 'dragonmen' battle the storm belt to take down a few gyarados and sell on every last part of them at colossal profit. It is a dangerous life, but those who survive can make a fortune from one trip if luck is on their side. The dragonmen tell stories of gyarados five hundred feet long, impossible to catch because the storms intensify around them. The largest specimen ever returned to land was nearly a hundred feet long, with teeth each the size of a child.

Magmar.
Magmar are thought to be a distant cousin of the charmander line, given the degree of physical similarity and elemental type. However, that is where the similarities end. Magmar have only ever been found on Cinnabar Island, living inside the volcano, and are therefore thought to have evolved in isolation there. They live bathed in lava. Quite how powerful they may be is largely unknown, because nobody has ever successfully removed one from the heat of the volcano.

Eevee.
Eevees are an entirely unique pokémon. They are known to evolve into three later forms: vaporeon, a water-type; jolteon, an electric-type; and flareon, a fire-type. However, consensus opinion has it that there are likely many more forms that simply have not yet been discovered. Certain types of mineral appear to have different effects on an eevee. When an eevee has significant quantities of lodestone residue in its environment, it becomes far more likely to turn into a jolteon. Similarly, the presence of high sulphuric deposits begins an eevee's growth into a flareon. To make an eevee grow into a vaporeon, a significant level of limestone in the environment is required. Current scientific opinion has it that the various residues of these particular minerals seep into the foods that make up an eevee's diet, thereby effecting the change. It is interesting to note that all the various adult forms of eevees produce regular eevees as their offspring, regardless of how their growth has been affected. However, given the environment, some can begin their development even before birth. Eevees themselves are relatively weak pokémon, not wisely used in combat. Their various adult forms, however, can grow to be extremely powerful, displaying an unusual level of mastery over their elemental affinities which few other pokémon can match.

Machop, machoke and machamp.
These pokémon are a heavily protected species, it being more or less entirely outside the law to own one. The reason for this is that they are far and away the most intelligent pokémon currently known, thought by some to in fact be sentient, or almost so. They live in communities of anywhere between five and one hundred, sometimes in caves, though more commonly in crudely-constructed houses made of rocks and logs. Their colossal strength means that they have little trouble carrying their building materials great distances from where they are found, and equally little with putting them together in construction. Machokes (the general name for the species) are a patriarchal society, with one alpha male leading the others in hunting and mating practice until such time as he dies or is ousted by a younger, stronger competitor. Machamps are extremely rare, and always male, and are the result of a recurring genetic mutation which appears to be recessive and can skip several generations at a time. When a machamp is born, the alpha machoke seems to defer almost instantly, though there have been instances of infant machamps being left to die while the community moves its settlement elsewhere. For this reason in particular it is thought that machokes are intelligent enough to have developed basic religious tenets and practices and reasoned argument amongst individuals, although no headway has yet been made into understanding their language. Female machokes are usually much slimmer than their male counterparts, though their strength still far exceeds any human, male or female. Their gestation period and the common problems and concerns of their birth are very similar to those of humans. There are two regions in Kanto in which machoke settlements can be found. The first is the Mountains of the Moon, though they are usually to be found well to the north of where human habitation extends. The second is the Blackrock Mountains north of Lavender and east of Cerulean and which are significantly smaller than the Mountains of the Moon, so perhaps naturally the numbers of machoke communities to be found there are much less.

Voltorb.
Voltorbs are the first, and so far only, man-made pokémon. Their outer shell is made from a simple metal container and is packed with explosives, making them extremely effective siege and anti-armour weapons, and at the centre of it all is a tiny pokémon, maybe a centimetre in length, but inordinately powerful for its size in the electric type. Most of these 'lightning bugs', as they are commonly known, remain in their real form in the wild, but are naturally very difficult to catch due to their size and not a great deal of use once they are caught, so they remain a generally untapped species in combat. Their electric affinity, when combined with the explosive power of their surroundings, makes their selfdestructive function even more dangerous than it would be anyway because it also creates a powerful electro-magnetic pulse which can stun or render unconscious electric pokémon within a far wider radius than the explosion would catch, they being the most sensitive. Given the type's prevalence in military affairs, this can be an extremely effective tactic. They were first created by James Surge, then lieutenant, in the Kantonine War of Independence some thirty years ago and have since become a staple of almost every army.

Gastly.
Gastly, along with their adolescent and adult forms known respectively as haunter and gengar, were long considered to be ghosts due to their hideous aspect and pseudo-psychic abilities. The pokémon themselves are significantly smaller than they appear as they have evolved a defence mechanism by which they cloak themselves in 'psychic' vapours which cause in both humans and other pokémon hallucinations and feelings of dread upon contact. Prolonged exposure can also cause more permanent damage and result in night terrors, hence the old legend that ghost pokémon could 'eat dreams'. This belief was furthered by the fact that gastlys are nocturnal and, somewhat unnervingly for many a would-be trainer, feed on decaying flesh, having not the strength in their jaws to tear fresh meat. This is why they are often found around graveyards and breeding grounds of the more profligate species of pokémon. Another myth concerning ghost pokémon is that they have no solid form; this is manifestly untrue, but not hard to understand. They are very rarely found in captivity, because the nature of their gaseous defences make it extremely difficult for anyone to be around them, let alone spend the time to train them. That said, some have succeeded in convincing these pokémon to control their discharge and turned them into extremely effective weapons.

More to come.
I hope I am a good enough writer that some day dwarves kill me and drink my blood for wisdom.

#2 Vortigern

Vortigern

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Posted 17 September 2011 - 04:47 PM

Legendary Pokémon.

Articuno.
Articuno is a myth, a legend and a god all at the same time. There are those who worship the great bird of the ice, and they claim it dwells far to the north, in the Arctic circle that bears its name. Their scripture tells that when Articuno descends from the north it will bring with it a new ice age and a cleansing of the world, and it is for that end-time that the faithful prepare constantly. They also believe the pokémon jynx to be the heralds of Articuno, created by the god-bird to resemble humans, to speak with mortals and sing to them the song of the ice, and that those drawn in by the song of the jynx are the only few fortunate enough to have been taken to Articuno's immortal presence. The followers of Articuno are to be found all across Kanto and indeed the world, but most consider their spiritual home to be the Seafoam Islands, whereon the largest populations of jynx are to be found, in the hope that being closer to them will help make their existence known to their god.

Very little is known about Articuno the pokémon, as opposed to Articuno the legend, but what is clear is that Articuno is predominantly of the ice type and, of course, a bird. No sightings have ever been officially recognised, but expeditionaries to the far north claim to have seen a bird the size of a sailing ship flying low across the frozen Arctic fields, leaving an ever-thickening trail of ice in its wake. Whether or not Articuno is just one pokémon or an entire species is also still unknown, though scientific speculation obviously tends towards the belief that it is a whole species, if it exists at all. Most treat the entire existence of legendary pokémon as something for the fanatics and the zealots, not for men of logic and reason.

Zapdos.
Zapdos, called the Thunderbird, is the subject of a great many tales, myths and legends. Sailors call it the Immortal Storm, believing it to live within the equatorial storm belt that encircles the planet and, indeed, to be the source of said storm belt. They believe that gyarados are the most exalted subjects of Zapdos, in a similar vein to the relationship believed to exist between Articuno and the jynx, as the only place in the entire world where adult gyarados may be found is constantly circumnavigating the globe beneath the guide of the storms. Though the practice has been outlawed in most countries, many sailors still offer blood sacrifice to Zapdos before embarking on their dragon-hunting voyages. There are thought to be more cults based around Zapdos than any other figure in the world, perhaps unsurprisingly. They all have their various beliefs, but one thing they all seem to hold in common is their apocalypse: Zapdos will leave the storm belt and cover the world with thunder and lightning, blasting mankind from the face of the earth. Some claim it will spare only its own kind, the electric pokémon, some claim it will spare all pokémon, others only those that remain free of human influence, others still that Zapdos will spare none at all and purge the world in its entirety.

As with Articuno, very little, if anything, is known about Zapdos the pokémon other than its type alignment, in this case being electricity. Some dragonmen claim to have seen Zapdos in the skies above them, but the majority claim to have felt Zapdos' presence, more than actually seen it, in the storms above them. Increases in intensity, lightning storms from out of nothing, the curious phenomenon known as 'Zapdos' fire', a coruscating green light which can wholly surround ships while leaving them unharmed; all are said to be signs that Zapdos is nearby, and all are immediate cause to flee as fast as a dragonboat is able.

Moltres.
Moltres is perhaps the most mysterious of the three legendary birds. There is only one recorded sighting in all of known history, and that from a known lunatic who committed suicide less than a month later. What little is told about Moltres comes entirely from myths and legends of the great firebird. The madman claimed to have seen Moltres inside Mt. Cinnabar, which is at least consistent with what the legends say. The madman claimed that he saw a bird made entirely of fire, though common speculation on this theme seems to be that Moltres would have flaming wingtips, akin to a cyndaquil's spines or a charmander's tail. There is little more that can be said about Moltres, as even the fanatics and cultists appear to know so little about the firebird as to never have designed any faith around it; that, or they are just as secretive as the subject of their worship.




((I may do Ho-oh and Lugia later. Or I may not. Haven't decided yet.))
I hope I am a good enough writer that some day dwarves kill me and drink my blood for wisdom.




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